Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/138

 converts to their church, have hastened to take advantage of the constant assemblage of the native tribes at this prohibited region, and have established a mission among them. As the Governor's order will protect these native tribes from the corrupting influence of the lower orders of the white population, the missionaries appear to entertain great hopes that their endeavours to convey some idea of religion to these Aborigines will be attended with greater success, than the many futile attempts hitherto made to convert the Australian blacks to Christianity.

Some German missionaries have been for some time among the blacks at Moreton Bay, and one of them has obtained considerable notoriety from having deliberately accused the squatters in that district of having poisoned upwards of fifty of the native blacks. The squatters of Moreton Bay, are almost all gentlemen of education and good connections, many of them being retired officers; and the ridiculous improbability of the general accusation brought against them by the Reverend Mr. Schmidt was so universally felt in the colony, that little trouble was taken to remove the aspersion cast upon them. On my arrival in England, however, I found that this affair had been seriously taken up by the Aborigines Protection Society, who threatened to have it brought before Parliament; much discussion on the subject has also appeared in the columns of the Colonial Gazette. These German missionaries seemed to be men of great disinterestedness, and actatedactuated [sic] by the